Shirley Temple Does Disney

This week we pay tribute to the greatest child actress of all time, Shirley Temple, who passed away last week, February 10th 2014, at age 85. During her vast and impactful career, Ms. Temple only made two commercial audio recordings—both of them in the role of narrator of classic Disney film stories. Her many hit songs were, however, recorded by dozens of performers, including Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm.

The first and the last commercially available record albums Shirley Temple ever made were Dumbo and Bambi, two RCA Victor adaptations of the Walt Disney films. Reportedly, Fox mogul Darryl Zanuck believed Shirley on records might cut into the profits she earned for the studio. Some early recording execs resisted radio because they feared that, if people could get songs free on a broadcast, they wouldn’t buy records. Sound familiar?

Temple was a young married adult when she recorded the two albums. Always fond of books and reading aloud, she also enjoyed listening to records and played them during her pregnancy. Her Disney connections included the famous presentation of the special Oscar to Walt Disney for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and appearing as a princess (also tying into her NBC series, Shirley Temple Storybook) for the official opening of the Sleeping Beauty Castle Diorama at Disneyland.

Adapted by lyricist Larry Morey, the RCA Dumbo recording is a recreation of the story with alterations in the voice cast, most notably Paul Frees replacing Ed Brophy as Timothy. Four songs are included, but Paul J. Smith background music is entirely different than Oliver Wallace’s original film underscore.

In contrast to Shirley Temple’s Dumbo album, Bambi is not a re-dramatization of the film but one of the earliest examples of a dialogue soundtrack album. If you listen closely, you can hear the slight imperfection in the voice tracks used, as well as a slight hiss on Temple’s narration. The two elements are independent of the music tracks, all of which are separate.

This is a good opportunity to give a shout-out to the marvelous voice performance of Paula Winslowe as Bambi’s mother, a character who was at the heart of many a child’s tears. Winslowe was not widely known for this role, but she was very much a part of mid-20th century radio in a variety of programs, including co-starring with William Bendix on The Life of Riley as his wife, Peg. You rock, Paula.

The songs sound similar to the way they were performed in the film, right down to “Love is a Song” being sung as it was in the film, by tenor Donald Novis. “I Bring You a Song (Looking for Romance)” is hummed by the chorus without lyrics. Maybe it was thought to be too romantic for the kiddies. There’s also a song called “Bambi” that was either written for the film or as a promotional “inspired by” number. It’s not listed in Russell Schroder’s two Lost Chords books, but many such songs could fill additional volumes in his excellent series.

By the time Shirley Temple was on her second marriage with two more children, baby boomers were discovering her movies on television. Fox finally released compilations of soundtrack songs from her motion pictures on vinyl records. Two such collections were The Complete Shirley Temple Songbook and the two-volume Little Miss Wonderful. Most of this early material is still available today, but Bambi and Dumbo would certainly be welcome digital reissues on CD or iTunes.

GIVE A LITTLE LISTENExcerpts from Shirley Temple’s Disney Records

Paul Frees plays Timothy, but I’m not certain who is making Dumbo’s sounds. It does not sound like Frees. The famous Bambi sequence with Thumper and Flower is immediately recognizable as the actual soundtrack. Shirley Temple is an excellent narrator, emotive without patronizing or going over the top. Too bad she never made any susequent recordings for children. I do recommend taking a look at the Shirley Temple Storybook TV shows available on DVD.

It’s interesting for HBR fans to note that both this album and Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm’s Christmas album are arranged specifically for very young children (as are the third and fourth volumes of Golden Cartoons in Song), while the songs on the other Hanna-Barbera records are take the form of pop, folk, surf and other pop tunes. I wonder if the idea was to aim the Hanna-Barbera stories at kids, teens and adults, which would explain the occasional jokes that some of us didn’t “get” until we were older.

Six songs from Shirley Temple are the hero tracks on this album, while five are new songs by HBR regular Lynn Bryson. The remaining song is “The Lord is Counting on You” the flip side of the single release of Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm’s signature tune, “Open Up Your Heart.” Both were the work of country artist Stuart Hamblen. I’ve always wondered why P&BB’s best-known song was never included on a Hanna-Barbera LP. Maybe the reason was to encourage purchase of the single.

This album has an especially striking cover by layout artist Homer Jonas, and background artist Fernando Montealegre, with lettering by Robert Schaefer – all of which are still marvels. Jonas and Montealegre’s names are signed (in tiny letters) on the bottom right.

GIVE A LITTLE LISTEN“At the Codfish Ball”

This is one of my favorite Shirley Temple songs (the other is “I Love to Walk in the Rain.”) This song, with a “roaring ‘20s” arrangement, is the exception to the preschool style of the overall album, because it cleverly segues into a pop rhythm with special lyrics (probably by Bryson) about groovy ‘60s dances. Barbara Feldon also did a memorably trippy performance of “At The Codfish Ball” on Marty Feldman’s short-lived TV variety show.

18 Comments

Pat ONeill

February 18, 2014 3:54:07 am

It’s worth noting that the cover of the Pebbles/Bamm-Bamm album features a mistake that almost every pictorial rendition of this song has done–depicting the “Good Ship Lollipop” as a boat. It’s not–it’s an airplane. In the movie in which Shirley first sang it, “Bright Eyes,” her father is a pilot, and she sings it to the passengers on an airplane as it taxis for take-off.

Oh well, blame the song for using the word “Ship” when we don’t normally use it for planes that much.

SteveCarras

February 18, 2014 2:58:40 pm

I have a RUDY VALLEE CD that has Rudy (and maybe appropriately) a thirties girl-group singing it, and the verse about a plane is sung….I enjoyed Shirlley Temple’s own narration for two Disney Albums mentioned..

To PAT ONEILL: Spot on! I first heard “Lollipop” on a Little Golden Record about 62 years ago! That cover also showed a boat as the “ship.” It wasn’t until a few years later that I first saw / heard Shirley singing the song in BRIGHT EYES. Even the verse lyrics–seldom sung since–make it clear: “I’ll be a pilot, too! And when I do, How would you, Like to be my crew?”

.. not that it much matters, but the people who steer boats and ships have been called ‘pilots’ for much longer than the people who steer airplanes. And the designation of ‘crew’ is hardly unique to either type of craft, either.

Chris Sobieniak

February 19, 2014 10:46:48 am

In that regard, the song could work for any type of vessel either sea or air-based, heck if it was a spacecraft, you can still probably use the tune as well.

Walt Mitchell

February 18, 2014 11:16:28 am

To GREG EHRBAR: Thank you for this fine piece regarding Shirley’s records. The two Disney stories were also repackaged on RCA’s EYA Extended Play 45s in 1953 or possibly ’54. Because of their six-part lengths, it was necessary to trim some of the material from both stories, since EPs could hold no more than about 15 minutes’ worth of material. Other 3-disc sets got the same treatment, such as Dennis Day’s adaptation of his Disney story of JOHNNY APPLESEED.

P. S.: Although it is true that the above Disney stories were Shirley’s only commercial recordings, I have some 78 rpm pressings of some songs from 20th Century-Fox musicals, on that label! These include Shirley singing “An Old Straw Hat” from REBECCA OF SUNNYBROOK FARM and “This Is a Happy Little Ditty,” sung by her with Joan Davis, Bert Lahr and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson in JUST AROUND THE CORNER.

One note though: 78’s were still popular in the 50s, and the Fox label started in 1958, so it’s likely that those Fox discs were also released years after the theatrical era of Temple’s movies, so the Disney releases most likely still predate her soundtrack records.

Dave

February 19, 2014 10:48:01 am

Greg,
The 20th Century-Fox 78s Walt refers to date from the ’30s, but were not commercial recordings and were never intended to reach the hands of the general public. They were created by Fox strictly for in-house and promotional use.

Fox’s tendency in the 1930s and ’40s to keep their musical stars out of the recording studios is curious to me. Darryl Zanuck held firmly to the belief that if the public could buy records of Shirley Temple or Betty Grable singing, that they would be less inclined to want to see their pictures. I don’t see how he could have failed to notice, though, that making commercial records certainly had no negative impact on the careers of Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, and many of the musical stars who were with other studios.

Dave

February 19, 2014 10:57:16 am

Mae Questel frequently dipped into Shirley’s movie songbook when she was recording for Decca in the ’30s. As if Decca was reasoning that if the public couldn’t buy records of Shirley Temple singing Shirley Temple movie songs, maybe they’d settle for records of Mae Questel singing Shirley Temple movie songs.

Oh, that makes sense, Dave. I had a feeling there were promotional records during her movie career, just none for retail sale. As for Zanuck not seeing the obvious logic right in front of him, it still happens.

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ABOUT GREG EHRBAR

GREG EHRBAR is a freelance writer/producer for television, advertising, books, theme parks and stage. Greg has worked on content for such studios as Disney, Warner and Universal, with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. His numerous books include Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records (with Tim Hollis). Visit gregehrbar.com for more.